The Mission
An e-commerce website for a manufacturing company.
Our client is legally required to provide a spare parts service to its customers. Prior to our involvement, Schwank’s spare parts supply was handled entirely over the telephone, was very labour intensive and dependent on the knowledge of key personnel. BBI were enlisted to move the whole spare parts service over to an e-commerce (online) shop. The e-commerce solution had to make life easier for our client’s customers and save time for our client.
The website had to incorporate a very wide range of products. Schwank heaters have a long service life and therefore a huge stock of spare parts was to be catalogued and categorised on the website. In order to ensure an excellent user experience, this extensive catalogue had to be organised in an intuitive and logical manner.
The Work
Having seen the extensive list of spare parts to be sold online through the new e-commerce website, BBI Brandboost decided the best platform for the development of the site would be Magento, an open-source e-commerce suite that is capable of handling extremely large lists of products. The site would be hosted on one of our enterprise business hosting environments, so as to provide the most robust infrastucture and the fastest possible delivery of service.
As with all websites that BBI builds, SEO was a key component and was factored in from the beginning of the project. As a result, while populating the new e-commerce website with Schwank's complete range of spare parts, the listing for each one was optimised for search.
As security is of paramount importance for e-commerce transactions, the new website also required SSL and a dedicated i.p. address. We set this up on our business-grade hosting platform and subjected the infrastructure to thorough security tests before going live.
Finally, an e-commerce website only works if it is able to take payments reliably - BBI integrated the third party payment gateway into the website to allow transactions to be completed through the website smoothly and securely.
The Outcome
The website was successfully completed and has the flexibility to allow the client to self-administer any required changes. These can include alterations to prices, the introduction of new products, changes in availability and delivery lead times, as well as text changes to the website's terms and conditions and, if necessary, adjustments to the overall design.
The site has been invaluable in freeing up Schwank's personnel from dealing with routine ordering matters over the phone and allowing them to concentrate more on core operational activities.
Schwank's end customers have been delighted with the new 24-hour online facility, and have found ordering spare parts to be much faster and easier than before.
This project has reinforced our belief in the effectiveness of our chosen e-commerce platform and we would be delighted to put it to work for you.